KANAB, Utah (June 21, 2024) — Best Friends Animal Society, a leading national animal welfare organization working to end the killing of dogs and cats in America’s shelters in 2025, released new data showing Virginia backslid from number 17 to number 10 in the country for most shelter deaths. The 2023 data showed that just under 9,900 dogs and cats were killed in shelters with more than 6,300 cats and just over 3,500 dogs unnecessarily dying.
In 2023, over 2,850 more dogs and cats were killed in the state than the year prior. The organization that is responsible for the majority of killing in Virginia is Danville Area Humane Society who’s already low save rate dropped 35% in 2023, from 26% to 17%. This resulted in the killing of over 600 more animals than in 2022, which equals 21% of the state’s total increase.
The Peninsula Regional Animal Shelter, with an intake of more than double that of Danville, saw a 9% reduction in their year-over-year save rate from 76% to 69%, also contributing to Virginia’s lifesaving drop. Peninsula Regional Animal Shelter, however, is taking positive steps forward to increase lifesaving. Field services partners have participated in Best Friends Outdoor Cat Nuisance Mitigation training, which teaches officers and shelter staff to address complaints about community cats humanely and effectively, and the shelter and civic leaders are continuing to explore additional opportunities to better serve their community. For those who live in the Peninsula region, the best way to help is to reach out to council and show support for prioritizing dog and cat lifesaving including the implementation of an expanded community cat program. Please visit here to see ways to improve lifesaving in the Danville area.
“Best Friends continues to offer support to both Danville Area Humane Society and looks forward to increased engagement with Peninsula Regional Animal Shelter,” said Makena Yarbrough, Senior Director, Lifesaving Centers, Best Friends Animal Society. “We continue to do this for the community members and their pets, despite the fact that Danville Area Humane Society has turned down our offer to help implement programming that will increase the number of animals leaving their shelter alive.”
Nationally, 2.3 million dogs and cats were adopted in 2023 – with a net result of 415,000 adoptable pets being unnecessarily killed in shelters last year. Best Friends data shows that pet adoption steadily declined over the last five years, while shelter intakes increased as more people acquired pets from breeders and pet stores.
“Roughly 7 million people in America are planning to acquire a pet this year, and if just 6 percent more people chose to adopt versus purchase their pets, we would end the killing of dogs and cats in our nation’s shelters,” said Julie Castle, CEO, Best Friends Animal Society.
To inspire those looking to add a pet to their home by choosing the adoption option, Best Friends recently kicked off their largest national campaign built upon the foundation that pets belong in homes not shelters. The ‘Bring Love Home’ campaign will bring awareness to the dogs and cats still being killed in shelters throughout the country simply because they don’t have safe places to call home.
Individuals can help save lives by choosing to adopt from a shelter or rescue group instead of purchasing from a breeder or store. Even if someone isn’t looking to add a new pet to their family, everyone can help end shelter killing by spaying or neutering their pets, fostering kittens or an adult dog, volunteering, donating for proven lifesaving programming for pets.
About the Dataset
Since 2016 when Best Friends set a bold goal to take the country no-kill by 2025, we’ve undertaken a massive effort to collect information from every shelter across the country. That meant starting at ground-level, because in 2016 no one even knew how many animal shelters there were in the country, let alone how many animals were entering and how many were leaving alive. Back then we collected data with volunteers doing records searches and calling shelters. In recent years, rather than working harder, we’ve learned to work smarter, and with the advent of AI, machine learning, and a record number of shelters providing the fastest and broadest range of data, this year is the smartest yet.
*A 90 percent save rate is the nationally recognized benchmark to be considered “no-kill,” factoring that approximately 10 percent of pets who enter shelters have medical or behavioral circumstances that warrant humane euthanasia as opposed to killing animals for lack of space.
